Parent Discussion: On Private Colleges

Besides the large state colleges and universities, there is a creature known as the “private” college. They are called “private” because it means they can charge a lot of money. Ha. Ha. More College humor for you. Private colleges are not paid for by the tax payers of a state, but rather by the student’s parents and by people best described as “wealthy”. There are many types of private colleges.

The Ivy League

The Ivy League is a set of several colleges in the Northeast that you can not get into. Harvard, Yale, Brown, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, and Cornell. To give you some idea about the cost involve at going to one on these schools, Dartmouth reports on their website that the cost of 2009-2010 school year is $49,974.00. So not only can you can’t get into them, you could not go there unless your dad was somebody famous like Thurston Howell III

If your child does somehow make it in to one of these schools, they are set for life, if they can somehow make enough money to pay off the college loans. I would advise them not to major in education or a liberal art, like Russian Literature or they will be the best educated waiter at Applebee’s.

The Just About Ivy League

Several universities like Northwestern, Emory, Vanderbilt, etc are almost Ivy League. In fact, they are just like the Ivy League colleges in price, the only difference being that they are not in the Northeast. Some of their football teams are better, too.

The good thing about the above schools is that you do not have to “explain” the school. I never heard anyone say, “I went to Notre Dame. It is a private Catholic school in Indiana”.

Which is more than what you can say about…..

All Of The Other Private Colleges

These are schools that aren’t really on many kids’ radar. These are the schools that kids stumble upon. “Hey, Harriet College. Lancaster, Minnesota. Home of the Nuclear Beavers. That might be fun.”

Many of these schools are associated with various Christian denominations. The denomination I belong to, The Southern Baptist Convention has about a million and one small private colleges.

One of my favorites is Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. You pronounce Ouachita as “Watch it taw”. Mike Huckabee went there. Really.

One thing I would caution parents and students alike is that there is a Christian school and there is a “Christian school”. Some of these schools have a loose affiliation with their denomination and it seems like just another college. While others, (I’m looking at you Liberty University) are more strict than other colleges when it comes to student behavior. For example, Liberty would be stricter than The University of The South. For some reason, Presbyterian schools seem to have a lot of partiers, almost up to Georgia Southern level.

Like most parents, I keep coming back to money. If your kid wants to go to a smaller private school, great. They tend to give out more scholarships than the big state schools and you may work it out where you are paying about the same as you would in a large state school.

One problem at the large state school is the large class size. My son took a class, in one of his weaker subjects, totally online because it was a required course and the school did not have the resources for everyone to be in a traditional setting, which would have suited his needs more. So for him, the small private college would have worked better. Also, in many large schools, the actual listed professor does not teach the course. It is taught by a Teacher’s Assistant (TA). Personally, if your kid gets a class taught by a TA, you should get a discount or at least some free spirit wear.

However, just because the class is small, doesn’t mean that the subject matter is taught well. I went to small colleges during my college career (and believe me, it was a career) and some of the professors couldn’t teach a dog to wag its tail. Due to the size of the school, the professors also have to teach courses that are in their basic subject matter, but outside their specialty. For instance, a finance professor might have to teach a marketing course. At a larger school, a finance professor would always teach finance.

So which is best for you and your kid?

One, and I know I’m sound cheap here, but price shop. If you can get into Harvard and can afford it, go for it. However, if you can’t get assistance in bringing the price down at a Ouachita Baptist ($25K per year), you probably would want to go to a state school.

Two, visit several schools if at all possible.

This is where we had issues. For some reason, we only made one visit: Georgia Southern. I wanted him to look at University of West Georgia, but he spent a couple of weeks at football camps there and simply did not like it. He also spent a week at a small Methodist school for football and I’ve been taking him to Kennesaw State basketball games since he was a little boy, so he had an idea of what he wanted.

Some schools, like Georgia Southern to its credit, actually want students to come there for school. Other schools act like they could care less if you come or not.

It is like any other business (and believe me, higher education is a business), the ones that act like they want students will get the students.

Three, check the alumni of the colleges. Not all famous people went to large colleges. Ronald Reagan went to Eureka College, which is somewhere on earth.

Fourth, check the reputation of the college. Find actual graduates. There is a website known as Student Review, which posts “reviews” of the colleges by actual students. Here are some of the reviews on Georgia Tech, which is probably one of the best schools for the money in the country:

came on this site before I decided to come here and thought "it wont happen to me." but this school is so bad. do not come here unless you're a major nerd and are prepared to have a lame social life. the professors suck and make the classes super hard.

Georgia Tech is just not a good university. I wish I got into Virginia Tech, I hear that school is much better.

If it’s really your only option and you're sure you want to be an engineer, just be prepared for a looonng period of suck

Imagine taking all the annoying people from highschool and sticking them in one college.

Do not take the bus, its slow. Do not eat the food, its bad. Do not come here, you will regret it.




My point is to never ask a student what they think about their college while they are going there. You will hear a lot of drama about the food (which totally sucks); the professors (it is amazing about how many professors actually suck) and other students (the suckiest sucks that ever sucked). At most college campuses, there are not many things that don’t suck. The only thing that sucks more is working for a living, but not many students are aware of that.